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Continental Shift

French Debates Point to an Increasingly Multicultural Europe

By James A. Thomson

James Thomson is president and chief executive officer of the RAND Corporation.

PHOTO: DIANE BALDWIN

To Americans who paid attention to France’s presidential election this past May, the debates among Nicolas Sarkozy, Ségolène Royal, and the other candidates touched upon strikingly familiar topics. Terrorism. A graying population destined to make greater demands on social security and health care systems. Growing numbers of legal and illegal immigrants facing difficulties integrating into society. Youth gangs and violence.

France’s election themes echoed policy debates that have taken place throughout Europe over the past decade. But what struck a chord with U.S. observers was that the French debates sounded similar to those that American voters and policymakers have been waging, though not necessarily resolving, for a very long time. Some of the issues that distinguish today’s national political discourse in France — race relations, for example, or religion in public schools — are ones that Americans might have thought were uniquely or quintessentially American.

As European states expand the membership of the European Union (EU) and other institutions, they confront a host of new challenges that know no boundary. Across Europe, there has been a confluence of issues that have all surfaced from a common underlying source: the need to manage change in multicultural societies.

Managing change requires objective analysis and innovative solutions. And these are areas in which RAND and its sister institution RAND Europe can play vital roles, helping leaders shape policy throughout Europe. As policy analysts for nearly six decades, RAND researchers have helped leaders recognize, deal with, plan for, adapt to, and manage change.

RAND Europe has been providing this sort of assistance to European governments, foundations, audit bodies, the EU, and other international organizations for 15 years. Recently, for example, RAND Europe evaluated fraud and errors in European social security systems, studied options that European governments might consider to raise population fertility rates, and investigated ways that authorities can counter the radicalization of Muslim youths who have been incarcerated in European prisons.

RAND Europe, which consolidated its operations in Cambridge, England, late last year, is uniquely well positioned to inform Europe’s policy debates and to help European leaders adapt to shifting multicultural currents. Beyond its existing research focus on six areas — modeling, health and health care, science and technology, defense and security, information policy and economics, and evaluation and audit — RAND Europe has also created an “emerging areas” practice to develop new and cutting-edge approaches to policy challenges still over the horizon.

Last May’s French presidential policy debates offered hints as to the types of challenges that might emerge. Many will likely involve managing major societal changes. From RAND’s perspective, that’s a driving motivation. RAND and RAND Europe have grown and flourished out of recognition that change is inevitable and that public policy is the art of managing such change for the greatest social benefit.

Vive le changement!